


Apologize

by nagi_schwarz



Series: The Oppenheimer Effect [43]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Crossover, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 14:36:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7226431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate Atlantis, Rodney McKay, His sharp tongue is learned behavior from his parent(s)."</p><p>Rodney sharpens his tongue on Tyler and learns to soften a bit more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apologize

“You are so stupid! How the hell are you even still alive?”  
  
As soon as the words were out of Rodney’s mouth, he stopped short, horrified, but the damage was done. Tyler’s expression crumpled, and he turned and ran for his room.  
  
“Rodney,” Cam said tightly, “you can’t talk to him like that.”  
  
Rodney started toward Tyler’s room, but JD caught his wrist. “Give it a few minutes,” he said. “But then you have to fix it.”  
  
“I didn’t mean to,” Rodney said. “I just - it just comes out of my mouth.”  
  
“Why?” Evan asked. “Who taught you that it was okay to talk to people like that?”  
  
“Obviously no one taught me that,” Rodney began.  
  
“You make the scientists on base cry sometimes,” Evan said. “They’re fully functioning adults. Tyler’s a teenager who’s gone through hell.”  
  
John had never believed in changing someone he was dating. Did he sometimes cringe when Rodney let loose at Zelenka or one of the other scientists? Yes. But Zelenka gave it right back, if not in English. And the culture of egotism among scientists meant they insulted each other frequently, gave as good as they got, and either they bucked up or they washed out. Did John think it was the best? No. Did he understand it? Absolutely. He was a soldier. Shared peril meant camaraderie. You didn’t have to like each other, but you had to be equally invested. If you had no skin in the game, you weren’t invested. And Rodney always apologized if he was wrong. Eventually. A little grudgingly.   
  
John had been in therapy long enough to know that that attitude was probably not healthy (but necessary for routinely saving the Earth from deadly aliens on a regular basis).  
  
But Tyler wasn’t a scientist, didn’t have their same self-confidence and borderline arrogance, and he was a teenager. He was at a power disadvantage and couldn’t - wouldn’t - shout back.  
  
The Science Department of the SGC ran on coffee and screaming matches.  
  
Rodney sighed. “I didn’t mean it.”  
  
“If you didn’t mean it at least a bit, it never even would have entered your thoughts.” Cam’s expression was dark.  
  
“I just -” Rodney scrubbed a hand over his face. “It’s reflexive. I - it was how I was raised, all right? My parents fired insults on all cylinders, and if you didn’t want to get yelled at, you excelled. Either you excelled to the point where they stopped yelling at you, or you stopped doing the thing that got you yelled at.”  
  
John sucked in a sharp breath. He knew Evan, JD, and Cam would assume Rodney was referring to things like being too loud while playing or running around and having regular kid fun that disturbed the adults. John knew Rodney was referring to his playing piano and his acting, that he’d excelled at as a youth. Things Rodney had loved. He still loved playing the piano, but he wouldn’t play for anyone but John unless it was karaoke night.  
  
“Welcome to parenting,” JD said quietly, “and that moment when you realize you’re more like your parents than you were ever going to let yourself be.”  
  
Rodney’s brow furrowed. “No. I refuse to be my parents.” He yanked out of JD’s grip.   
  
“Where are you going?” John asked.  
  
“To do what my parents never did.”  
  
“What’s that?” Evan asked.  
  
Rodney called over his shoulder, “Apologize.” Then he knocked on Tyler’s door.  
  
John, Evan, Cam, and JD fell silent, straining to hear. The door opened, there was a murmur of voices, and then silence when the door closed again.  
  
“Think it’ll go okay?” Cam asked.  
  
“Rodney will fix it,” John said. “He’s a good man.”  
  
“That he is.” But Evan looked anxious.  
  
JD winced. “He’s got a sharp tongue on him.”  
  
“He does,” John said, “but he’s learned to be soft.”  
  
Cam raised his eyebrows. “You taught him?”  
  
“No,” John said, more sharply than he’d intended. “It’s not my job to fix Rodney. But he’s softened, over time.”  
  
“Being in love will do that to a man,” JD said wisely, and John couldn’t help but blush a little.  
  
Cam released a breath. “You’re right. It’ll be fine.”   
  
“You should probably still rearrange the holiday calendar so Tyler goes with you guys to the commune instead of to Canada for Thanksgiving,” John said, and Evan had already reached for the family calendar.  
  
JD and Cam both fired up their phones to make calls to the airlines, and John sank down in one of the kitchen chairs and waited.  
  
Later that night, after Tyler and Rodney had preliminarily made up - feelings were still raw on both sides - John and Rodney curled up on their couch in the basement while a documentary about the evolution of fighter jets played on the History Channel.  
  
“They used to say it all the time,” Rodney said quietly. “That I was stupid or pathetic or weak or not good enough.”  
  
John pressed a kiss to his temple. “They were wrong. You’re a genius, Rodney. You always have been. But even geniuses are beginners at some point in their lives.”  
  
“I always swore I would never be like them. But then I was just like them, wasn’t I? When I disdained Jeannie for getting married and having a family. When I said what I said to Tyler.”  
  
“You apologized, didn’t you?”  
  
“I don’t know if he believed me.”  
  
“If you meant it, what he believes is up to him.”  
  
“I hurt him.”  
  
“You apologized.”  
  
“I was cruel.”  
  
“Thoughtless.”  
  
“He was crying.”  
  
“Even teenage boys do that.”  
  
“How can you possibly love me when I can be so -”  
  
“Forgiving of yourself? Determined to rise above the million petty cruelties of your parents? So damn sexy?”  
  
“What - hey, you can’t distract me with sex.”  
  
“Is that a challenge?”  
  
“Yes! No. I mean - oh, do that again.”  
  
“I love you, Rodney.”  
  
“Love you too, John.”


End file.
